SOLITUDE

SOLITUDE
Laugh and the world laughs with you;
Weep and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost in the air
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care


Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go;
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all-
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life’s gall


Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and its helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure;
For a large and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain’’.

-END-

A poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.